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Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 A Tropical Birding SET DEPARTURE tour Taiwan: Birding with a Camera 5 – 15 November 2018 TOUR LEADER: Nick Athanas TAIWANESE GUIDE: Kuan-Chieh (Chuck) Hung Report and photos by Nick Athanas Taiwan Blue-Magpie was a tour favorite – several were bathing in a stream right in front of us TB’s inaugural Birding with a Camera tour to this fascinating island nation was a great success and also a tremendous amount of fun. We enjoyed near-perfect weather as we explored many of the best birding sites, seeing nearly 170 species and photographing most of them, including the vast majority of the avian endemics. Taiwan is only a bit larger than the US state of Maryland, but with a population more than that of Florida; a www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.1 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 common impression is that the island is a vast city with no natural habitat left, but that could not be further from the truth. Most people live in the coastal plain, which is far from picturesque, but does have some globally important wetlands that huge numbers of shorebirds, waterfowl, and other aquatic species inhabit, and we spent a couple of excellent days in these areas. Away from the coast, the terrain becomes very mountainous and sparsely-populated, with lush forest, gorgeous vistas, and some truly spectacular endemic birds. Taiwan’s mountains reach nearly 13000 ft. (4000 m.) in height, which is remarkable considering its small size. We spent most of our time in these highland areas, getting great photos of birds such as Swinhoe’s Pheasant, White-whiskered Laughingthrush, Steere’s Liochicha, and Flamecrest to name a few, along with some neat mammals too like the impressive Red-and-white Flying Squirrel. We enjoyed the cultural aspects as well, including exotic food, ornate temples (some with owls in them!), and the friendly and curious locals who often wanted to know where we were from and what we were looking at. Since I had never been to Taiwan before, we hired a superb local guide named Kuan-Chieh (he also goes by the English name of “Chuck”), who knew the birds and their songs amazingly well. He also gave us lots of insights into the history and culture of Taiwan. 5 November: The tour officially kicked off this afternoon with a visit to Taipei’s botanical gardens. There’s no easy place to park, so we just took taxis, and soon were getting to grips with some of the common birds like Spotted Dove, Light-vented and Black Bulbuls, huge flocks of Japanese White-eyes, Arctic Warbler, Gray Treepie, and a few Eurasian Moorhens: www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.2 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 We had our first Taiwanese endemic in the form of a Taiwan Barbet. They are quite common, but almost always stay high in the canopy, so getting a decent photo is tough. Even though we tried again at other places during the trip, this is probably the best we got: We also shot a few introduced species as well, including Oriental Magpie-Robin and this White-rumped Shama: Next we headed to the Huajiang Nature Park on the banks of the Tamsui River. At first there were only introduced species like Sacred Ibis, Black-collared Starling, and Javan Myna. The native species became more evident as we reached the mudflats, with Common and Wood Sandpipers, Gray Heron, Crested Myna, and Eastern Yellow Wagtail. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.3 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 A pair of recently-split Oriental Magpies was building a nest in a metal pylon, occasionally coming down to the ground to feed: Finally, as we were leaving, we found a very approachable Malayan Night-Heron, totally unafraid of the pedestrians and bicyclists coming past a few meters away: It was a nice bird to finish with! We headed back to the hotel and found out that the hotel restaurant was fully booked by an epic-sized tour group, so we instead walked to a local Sichuan restaurant that was absolutely fantastic, the first of many excellent meals on this tour, with a great mix of veggies, meats, and seafood. www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.4 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 6 November: After a nice buffet breakfast in our hotel, we headed out north of Taipei to a small park called Qianshan, which has geothermically heated waters. Chuck knew this was a popular hangout of one of Taiwan’s most spectacular endemics, the Taiwan Blue-Magpie. Sure enough, they were calling as soon as we arrived and we soon tracked them down. Like many places we visited, the park was packed. While you may not think that throngs of people is conducive to good birding, we never found that to be the case. In fact, in many places we visited, the birds were so used to having people around that they were amazingly approachable, allowing superb close-up photos. Before long we were watching the magpies take baths in a stream from only a few meters away! www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.5 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 Amazing! We also were able to photograph its relative, the Gray Treepie: Another Malayan Night-Heron posed for shots too, and we also saw Crested Goshawk, Little Egret, Gray Wagtail, and some Oriental Turtle-Doves: www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.6 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 We then drove farther up into the mountains, where a quick roadside stop along hillside choked in bamboo produced our only Vinous-throated Parrotbills of the trip: A stop at Menghuan Lake for Taiwan Bamboo-Partridge only got us a “heard only” record, but we did see Rufous-capped Babbler, Red-flanked Bluetail, and the endemic Taiwan Hwamei: It was soon followed by the introduced Chinese Hwamei, which we were less happy to see since it is interbreeding with the native hwameis. It was getting late in the morning, so we drove back to Taipei, stopped for a tasty dumpling lunch, then continued south along the west coast of the island. We reached our hotel in Dongshi with daylight left, so we immediately headed up into the hills along the start of the road up to www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.7 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 Dashueshan. We quickly found Daurian Redstart, Black and Bronzed Drongos, Red Collared-Dove, Crested Serpent-Eagle, White-rumped and Scaly-breasted Munias, and a pair of Collared Finchbills: However the most bizarre sighting of the trip came when a flock of two Blue-and-yellow Macaws, one White Cockatoo, and an African Gray Parrot screeched in and landed on utility pole right next to us! It felt like a Pixar movie… three species from three distant continents, none of which are native to Asia never mind Taiwan. Chuck asked around and found out that a local resident kept them as pets, and occasionally let them out to fly around on their own. After that, we headed back to our hotel, had another excellent dinner, and hit the sack. 7 November: Early breakfasts in Taiwan are often done at the ubiquitous 7-Elevens that you can find almost everywhere. Today’s was the first of several, as we wanted to arrive at the best feeding site for Swinhoe’s Pheasant just past dawn. It was quiet when we arrived with no signs of any pheasants, but pretty soon a covey of Taiwan Partridges came in, giving close views (though low light made getting sharp photos hard). www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.8 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 After they left, the birding was pretty slow, with just Gray-chinned Minivet and flyover Ashy Wood-Pigeons seen for a while. We were just heading down the road to check another spot when a sudden rustling drew our attention to a large brown bird on the other side of the road. Soon after, large shapes started crossing one after the other and suddenly there were Swinhoe’s Pheasants everywhere, including one glorious male! www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.9 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 That was more like it… Once we had taken our fill of pheasant pics, we continued birding along the road, finding a few more species like White-tailed Robin, Taiwan Barwing, Rufous-faced Warbler, Black-throated Tit, Taiwan Yellow Tit, and Green-backed Tit (below). Our picnic lunch (which included piping-hot instant noodles) was interrupted by an odd-looking mammal that looked like a cross between a goat and an antelope, the endemic Formosan Serow: www.tropicalbirding.com +1-409-515-9110 [email protected] p.10 Tropical Birding - Trip Report Taiwan: Birding with a Camera, November 2018 It clouded over a bit after lunch, and that seemed to help the bird activity. Not far from our picnic stop, we found an excellent mixed species flock that came closer when we played the call of a Collared Owlet.
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